Death of an Icon: What Happened to the SR-71 Blackbird

The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest plane on earth. For three decades, the Blackbird was the premier reconnaissance platform operated by the United States Air Force and the CIA, giving the Soviet Union fits as they tried to come up with a way to counter it. They built the MiG-31 with the hopes of shooting it down, but they never did. So if the SR-71 was such a formidable weapon, why was it canceled with nothing taking its place? On this episode of Revealing History, we answer that question and more.

All images and video's courtesy of:
Public domain
Canva
United States Air Force
Air Force Museum
Smithsonian Museum
NASA
Department of Defense

All other images and videos were created by Dennis Gill for Revealing History.

Written, produced, and directed by Dennis Gill.

We make every attempt to be as accurate as possible in our storytelling by consulting multiple sources when possible and utilizing historically accurate images and videos. Because versions of events can change depending on the source, or because of the perspectives of those relating those events, or because we simply make a mistake, sometimes not all the facts are indeed, the facts. We also attempt when possible to use media in the form of images and videos that help to tell the story as accurately as possible. That can be challenging as there is oftentimes no media of a particular event. If you find that we are in error, please let us know in the comments and we will post the corrections here. Thank you for your understanding and for watching.

[rogerrees]

What a beautiful brute of an aircraft.... Thank you for this interesting presentation highlighting it's history.... Roger... Pembrokeshire UK